(Left to right): Stills from My Imaginary Country by Patricio Guzmán, EAMI by Paz Encina, What We Leave Behind by Iliana Sosa, and Dos Estaciones by Juan Pablo González.
The 18th edition of the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF), taking place September 15-18 in Camden, Rockport, and Rockland, Maine, will include 17 works from U.S. Latinx and Latin American filmmakers—eight feature films, six shorts, and 3 installation pieces.
This year’s CIFF highlights include a sneak preview of the highly anticipated My Imaginary Country / Mi país imaginario by Patricio Guzmán, which chronicles the recent protests in Chile in which millions took to the street to demand democracy, dignity, and a new constitution.
Of the seven other feature films from U.S. Latinx and Latin American filmmakers, four will have their North American premiere at CIFF: EAMI by Paz Encina, Herbaria, by Leandro Listorti, It is Night in America / É Noite na América by Ana Vaz, and Terranova by Alejandro Alonso & Alejandro Pérez.
The Paraguayan film EAMI by Encina, winner of the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, is a story of the displaced, about the Asojá, the bird-god-woman who transmutes spirit. She was a tiger, she was a plant, she was a jaguar, and today she is a girl who must heal her pain.
Herbaria, by Argentine director Listorti, reveals the woven relationship between plants, films, and memories, inviting the audience to consider the process and purpose of image preservation. In It is Night in America, Brazilian director Vaz questions if animals are invading our cities, or if we are occupying their habitat, while the Cuban documentary Terranova portrays Havana as a ghostly, magical and sensory space.
Dos Estaciones, by Juan Pablo González, pushes the boundary between scripted and documentary film and is characterized by the directors close relationship to the setting of the film. Set in the bucolic hills of the Jalisco Highlands and filmed in a tequila factory run by the directors family, an iron-willed businesswoman María García fights the impending collapse of the business threatened by large multinational companies. Dos Estaciones will also be in theaters in select cities, opening September 9.
Also at CIFF, The Territory, by Alex Pritz, continues to receive praise in festivals and theaters. When a network of Brazilian farmers seizes an area of protected Indigenous territory, a young native leader and his mentor must find new ways to fight back. What We Leave Behind / Lo que dejamos atrás by Iliana Sosa, is a poetic love letter to the director's grandfather, as it follows him building a new house in rural Mexico.
The festival also runs in parallel with Points North Artist Programs, a fellowship that supports early- and mid-career filmmakers. U.S. Latinx and Latin American participating projects in the artist program are The Inventory by Ilana Coleman, Más y más y más flores by César Martínez Barba, We Believe! by Janah Elise, Humankind by Lucía Ortega Toledo, Borders by Morningstar Angeline, and The Untitled 19th* News Film by Chelsea Hernandez.
For the third consecutive year, CIFF will present its filmmaker solidarity fund. The fund will provide $300 honoraria to all feature and short filmmaking teams participating in the virtual festival. This year also marks the return of in-person panels and masterclasses through the festival’s Points North Forum program, which will feature conversations around the ethics of film financing, and an exploration of experimental filmmaking about the climate.
Of the shorts included in the festivals selection, the following are from Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers: Call Me Jonathan (Argentina), by Bárbara Lago; Fire in the Sea (Argentina) by Sebastián Zanzottera; Lungta (Mexico, Ecuador) by Alexandra Cuesta; Pacaman (Dominican Republic) by Dalissa Montes de Oca; Seasick (Brazil/France) by João Vieira Torres; and Solastalgia (Cuba/Honduras) by Violeta Mora.
This year’s Storyforms exhibition features the Mexican Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, showcasing three different works as an installation looping every 2- hours during festival weekend. Three of the installation works are from Latin American and Latinx creators: Tierra en Trance, Notes for a Deja Vú, The Sun Quartet.
The 2022 fest will include 34 features and 40 short films from over 41 countries. Over 60% of the entire program is directed or co-directed by BIPOC filmmakers. Located in a small, remote town on the coast of Maine two hours from a major airport, CIFF has become an Oscar campaign hotspot in recent years.
